Thank you, Pope Benedict, even though you're not “the” Pope

Tuesday

Feb 12, 2013 at 12:04 PMFeb 12, 2013 at 12:06 PM

For my entire life "the" pope was always defined as one particular man, the late Pope John Paul II.

Michael Jones, mjones@stuttgartdailyleader.com

Monday's news of Pope Benedict XVI's plan to resign as the See of Rome and Saint Peter due to concerns over his age and declining health, caught me off guard. It wasn't so much the fact that — on a historical level — this was a totally unexpected thing as Pope Benedict was only the second in history to abdicate the position, but that if I were truly honest with myself I'm not sure that in my heart of hearts I thought of this man as "the" Pope.

I'm sure that didn't come out right.

What I meant was that for my entire life "the" pope was always defined as one particular man, the late Pope John Paul II. All through my formative years this was the face of the Papal office to me. Whether at my mother or grandmother's knee, in the stone-walled classrooms in catechism or now in the simple surroundings of my own home — in the moments where I think of the Pope it's usually of that one man and not the office itself.

The man, for me, personified the office.

Pope Benedict was (and is) the Pope, of course. I look to the church when my thoughts go wandering to the Roman Catholic roots of my upbringing and I see this man and this office as being very much the living embodiment of the successor to Saint Peter…and I love and cherish his words of wisdom and guidance very much.

It is just very weird to me that even in the eight years he has served in this very necessary position that there is still this fine distinction in my own thoughts and perceptions.

I think, perhaps, it is just my own heart wanting my faith and church to be exactly as the one my mother raised me to believe in. I want the head of the church to be the head of the church she taught me of.It is a very selfish thing that I am just now acknowledging about myself.

Pope Benedict will officially step down on the Feb. 28 in order to make way for the Conclave of Cardinals to elect a new Supreme Pontiff that will take up the charge of guiding the destiny of millions of Catholics through this journey we call life.

I pray that he is someone wise enough to gather all of us into his arms — even those of us who are admittedly strayed from the church for whatever reason — just as I pray that I can learn to accept that simply because the wave I once danced in as moved on farther from me than I could ever swim…I am still here, in the ocean, and I am still surrounded and lifted up by the waters of my mother's faith and her mother's faith, and so on and so on.

Thank you for your years of love and service, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger. I wish you love and health as you live out the rest of your days. Also, thank you for guiding the way even though my own head was still looking in the mirror at what had gone before.

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